Dead Television Report 2

9:22pm 19July06 Wednesday

Okay so the only thing that I'm missing from having no television is the Tour de France. Yesterday Floyd Landis wore the yellow jersey and after today's stage he is 8 minutes behind the lead. He's demoralized and saying that he has lost his chance to win the tour. Sucks big time.

It's not like I have anywhere to go to watch it either. No one really cares about the Tour. They say it's boring. But they don't get it. I watched every stage last year (when everyone I knew said they were only going to watch the last stage - anticlimactic) because it was Lance Armstrong's last year and I had just finished reading his book , it's not about the bike. His cancer tale was horrifying. His biking info was darn interesting.

I was inspired watching the Tour because if you really pay attention and you are watching a great, you get it.

In the time trials he pushed his ass as hard as he could. In the team timed whereby your time would be based on the last rider that made it across the line, you had to be a team player. You had to be a leader when needed, tell people or show people how to use their energy for optimum results. How many times do you have an abundance of energy and then blow your load on one thing because you think you are invincible? The Tour teaches you that if you use your energy wisely you can have everything your heart desires. In the general stages where it's about points, Lance would relax and let others win the stages but be very mindful of his points and what he needed to maintain his points and push it if he needed to worry about his points. Patience. It's nice to win a stage but it's not only about one stage it's about the whole race. I compare that to Life. It's not about one incident, It's about living your whole life.

This years race is just as interesting because Lance isn't in it. There has been no clear leader throughout. It really is any man's race. And that man will be known as the first man to win since Lance retired. That will be a trivia question alongside all the Lance Armstrong questions. Everyone knows that it's their race to win or lose and that's damn exciting. When Lance raced his last race the anxiety was over, what if he wipes out, what if the other racers get organized enough to keep him behind. The anxiety was never about whether he could do it. For me, the only disappointment was that I'd never watched the tour before. I would have loved to have seen the race when Lance gave Jan Ullrich the look on the mountains. The look said I'm going are you coming and Jan ate Lance's dust and watched him disappear like a balloon in the sky. Oh I can see it. Oh it's gone behind the clouds.

So yeah, no television is great. Got my laundry done, cooked a nice dinner, bought some shoes... But the Tour? I'm hurtin' for certain...

EY